


The Tales Of Theodore

by elysianaurora



Series: You’ve Got A Friend In Me [1]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Depictions of Child Abuse, Growing Up, Imaginary Friend, Kid Mickey Milkovich, M/M, Mentions of Substance Abuse, baby Mickey might just break your heart, kid mickey, stuffed animal, terry is a dick like usual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 22:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18398033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elysianaurora/pseuds/elysianaurora
Summary: Mickey never thought he’d see his childhood home again when he crossed that boarder into Mexico but after giving himself up for Ian and serving out their sentences, Mickey gets a call that Terry is dead. He returns to the house with Mandy and Ian in order to clean it up to sell it. He ends up rehashing memories he’s thought he’d long forgotten. And he finds an old friend.The one where Mickey finds his stuffed animal that was once his best friend when he was just six years old.Dedicated to Mahii ♥️





	The Tales Of Theodore

**Author's Note:**

> An idea I got after I saw a tweet from Mahii so kudos to her for the idea. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy this. It’s quite different than what I usually write. It’s my first time writing kid Mickey so I hope it’s good. Didn’t wanna make it too long in case I totally flopped but here you go 😂.

The dust that kicks up in the air makes it almost hard to see as Mickey cuts through the last box. It’s honestly the last thing he feels like doing at the moment but he’s already been through five just like it, might as well finish. He coughs out to clear his lungs as his right hand swipes through the air to clear his visuals. He doesn’t really expect to find anything meaningful but he can already hear the sound of Mandy and Ian bitching if he doesn’t actually do what he came here to do. His life had changed and took so many drastic turns throughout the past decade that Mickey hardly ever thought that in the present year, 2023 he’d be sitting in his childhood home rummaging through old crap that meant absolutely nothing to him. There were too many big significant turning points in Mickey’s life where he stopped for a moment to think this is it for me, this is the last chapter of my life and I’m surely going to die before making it out to the other side.

Mickey would usually consider his first stint in Juvie a piece of cake. He was new and probably an easy target mainly because of how small he was. But what he didn’t have in height he made up for in attitude and reputation. Luckily for him when he first got to Juvie in the year of 2011 his reputation on the Southside streets and his last name proceeded him making sure that no one messed with him unless they were absolutely stupid and it that case they got stabbed with a fork (case in point, some dumb fuck who hit Mickey over the head with a lunch tray.)

He wasn’t so scared the second time around either. When he got there, it was more of a Let’s just get this over with kind of ordeal. It was in the year of 2012 however while living out his second incarceration did Mickey really start to realise he way he felt about the redheaded boy he’d been caught with the day before he ended up in that shithole. When Mickey really started to figure out that the words he’d said to the boy about him being nothing but a fuck and a way for Mickey to get his rocks off was all lie, that’s when he really got scared. And when he out and the first place he headed was to that redhead, and that’s when Mickey first thought yeah, I’m most likely not making it out of this alive. That year was probably the worst.

Yup definitely not gonna wake up tomorrow breathing. Mickey thought later that year when his father, (that bigoted bastard) had caught them with Ian literally balls deep in him. When he first saw Svetlana’s face he’d thought he was so fucked. But somehow he’d made it to see another day. Providing he really wished he hadn’t. Everyday leading up to his ‘wedding’ were days where Mickey thought about actually wrapping his lips around his revolver and pulling the trigger. He’d ended up with a wife he hated to even look at and a kid he most definitely didn’t want.

But somehow by some higher power Mickey made it through, maybe more damaged than before but he was breathing. Then heartbreak rolled around for the first time and the pain Mickey felt deep in his soul was enough to make him think that he would breathe his last few breaths before he could even make it a month in prison. Yeah, what had his life come to that the fact that he was in big boy prison wasn’t what scared him the most? He used to laugh sometimes in the most cynical way when he thought about the irony that the boy who was never loved got his heart broken because he loved too much.

When he made it through the first two years of prison and his plan of breaking out of the place actually worked he thought that the little sense of bliss he felt with Ian would be short lived. He didn’t think it would take the FBI long to find him but he was willing to have whatever little infinity he could have with Ian. (Yeah he read that in The Fault In Our Stars - it was some good shit that Ian gave him to read in prison the second time after he’d read it.)

Obviously the FBI did a shit job of looking for him but that’s not really the point. The point is that when Mickey crossed that border to head into Mexico, he thought that he’d never see his family home again, he’d never see Mandy again (that’s if she was even still alive), he’d never see Svetlana or Yevgeny again (not that he really gave a shit) and he most definitely wouldn’t see Ian again. Then he had to be conveniently sitting in a bar on a particular Friday night on a beach in Guadalajara when he saw on fucking international news the almost comedic ‘Gay Jesus’ Movement. It would have been funny if the man standing on the back of a pick up truck wearing a fucking God loves fags T-shirt wasn’t the man Mickey was still so hopelessly in love with despite the heartache that man had caused him.

So Mickey, because he’s so stupidly in love, turns himself and an entire fucking cartel in. He was heading back to prison in the summer of 2019 with a fucking bullseye for anyone affiliated to the cartel on his back. That’s when he thought he’d never see outside those prison walls ever again. Prison was just as bad as expected. Although he’d made this massive gesture of love for Ian, he was still in a pretty fucked up shattered state of mind and he was locked in a 10x10 cell with the guy everyday for the next two years. They fought a lot and there was one point when Mickey thought he’d get a damn embolism from the shit Ian would spew sometimes. But then things were good on other days and he felt that fuzzy love he couldn’t help but hold for the redhead.

Ian served his sentence and Mickey ended up alone for two more years. That’s when the going got tough and Mickey had no choice but to be tough and get with the going. He got knocked around and beaten up because word had definitely gotten out in the big boy house about Mickey’s preference for taking it up the ass from a now free Ian. There was one night he was lying in his cell below his new cell mate and he actually attempted to hold his breath until he died. He felt really fucking stupid afterwards so he doesn’t like to talk about it. He thought about everyone and everything his mind could drift to. But mostly he thought about someone he never really lets himself think about anymore. His mom. She was a real shit parent, no doubt about that. But she was nicer than Terry any day, and when Mickey was nothing more than a toddler his mom hung the fucking moon in his eyes. He thinks about her eyes. Her pools of blue that were somehow warm and loving instead of icy like his own could be.

He missed the outside world and more so he missed not knowing what was going on.

The real test of their relationship wasn’t Mickey being on prison but Ian being free. I mean it didn’t work out so great the first time. But by some miracle it did this time. But that’s not what this story is about. (Bet I had you fooled right, I tend to get ahead of myself sometimes. My apologies.)

Back on track, Mickey didn’t want to be cleaning out his old childhood home. He was officially out for six months and he was doing as well as can be expected. He and Ian lived together now without any of the other’s families getting in the way and they genuinely were making an effort to communicate and make them work. Mickey’s had a handle on himself for sometime now. He started court mandated therapy since he got into five fights in less than a month. The goal was Anger Management. After weeks of a silent Mickey trying to look as menacing as he could Mickey finally gave in and unlocked his gates and let the shit flow. That’s where his healing process started and even after leaving prison, he’s continued his therapy in a hope that he could move past the shit he’s had to live through because his therapist finally made him see that the things he went through is not normal and most definitely not alright and his feelings are more than important.

So while he’s healing the last thing he wants is to be sitting in the dusty old attic of their house emptying boxes that are mostly filled with things that he ends up throwing away. Mandy had insisted however. Mandy…bet she didn’t think she’d ever come back to Southside either.

Tony, their older brother was serving a life sentence for murder. Jaimie had fucked off years before. Joey and Iggy had three more years on their sentences after both being caught and charged with intent to sell. Fucking idiots. Terry had been out of prison for only five months before he got in some fight at a bar with a couple of gay Hispanics and then when the police showed up on the scene Terry being the drunk fuck that he was attacked an officer before pulling a weapon. Before he could pull the trigger the gun of the other assisting police office fired and well let’s just say Terry’s head went well all over the place. Tragic.

Anyways, the house was surprisingly enough Terry’s but not so surprising part was that he didn’t have a will. So when Mickey got the call a week before while he was working his shift at the Garage, the first thought that came to his head was that thing the Gallagher’s did when they faked their aunt’s death, then faked her will to get the house. So Mickey called Ian and told him to get Lip and that’s where the plan started. Mickey was going to sell the house and make some cash.

Ian insisted they called Mandy even though none of them had her phone number anymore. They dug and dug until they eventually did find her through her agency and then she was boarding a flight back home. Mickey doesn’t know why the fuck but who cares.

So they started cleaning out the house to get it on the market. That’s how Mickey found himself looking down into a box filled with old worn out dusty toys and baby books. He doesn’t remember half these things and he wasn’t even aware his mother kept them. Maybe incase she had another or Mandy came home pregnant. He looks through quickly not seeing anything worth keeping so he throws the box down through the floor space into the heap collecting in the living room floor of shit to dump. He crawls further into the attic and pulls out an old jacket that probably belonged to one of his brothers at some point when a rat goes squeaking and running by. “Ahh, fuck!” Mickey curses pulling away.

“Everything okay?” Mickey hears Ian ask from downstairs.

“Is everything okay? I just saw a rat that’s the size of your big fucking head. No It Is not okay.” Mickey looks around breathing to steady his heart rate a little when his eye catches on a limp of dust in the corner. Initially he thought it was a dead rat but when he saw the slightly shredded tag he could tell it was a stuffed toy.  
He pulled it out shaking the dust off a little as he cover his nose in his elbow. When he looked back to the toy he gasped softly as he looked down at something he never thought he’d see again. His old stuffed Penguin that was once Mickey’s best friend, Theodore.

There was a time when Mickey didn’t have anyone. Not Mandy, not his brothers and definitely not Terry. But he had some bits and pieces of his mom when she wasn’t high or drunk or so beaten up she couldn’t move. When he was only two years old, Terry was serving a year on an assault charge, and Marynia barely had her head above water. There’s only so much money a whore can be racking in and it certainly wasn’t enough to take care of her five boys and her newborn girl. Tony was out selling by the block at fourteen and Jaimie was shoplifting as much food as he could. Marynia mostly spent the little cash she had though on whatever booze or drugs she could get her hands on.

One particular day, after she’d gone out to probably get fucked up, Iggy had ended up the only one home to take care of his two year old brother and one month old sister. It wasn’t easy providing he was only six but he made it work. When Marynia made It out to the corner and met a client and left to go who the fuck knows where, she’d gotten so fucked up on something laced that she found herself spinning, free. She definitely wasn’t afraid of Terry coming home and seeing there was no food on the table because fucker was in prison. She thinks about leaving, and never coming back. It’s not like he’d know where she went and he definitely doesn’t care enough to go out looking for her. She’d last four more years in that house before finally shooting up just enough heroin to not wake up again. The point of this part of the story though is to tell you about the moment she strolled into Abdul’s corner store, what you would now know as the Kash and Grab. Kash’s dad was just as much a pussy as his son was when it came to the Milkoviches. She strolled in grabbed a couple beers, tucked them beneath her arm, grabbed a collection of snacks and then when she got to the counter she held her hand out, “Two packs, New Port and a Morley.” She slurred. Her vision right then wasn’t so great.

Abdul nervously reached for the cigarettes for the fear that she would pull a gun on him and then didn’t both cashing it all in, he just stuck it into a plastic bag. Her heavy eyes however landed on something behind him that she wanted. “Give me the Penguin.”

“Penguin’s not for sale. I-It’s my son’s.”

“I don’t see him around. Gimme it. I know my Mickey would love it.” Abdul reaches behind him with a shaking hand, retrieving the stuffed animal and handing it over. “See ya later TowelHead.” She called as she grabbed the penguin and headed out the store.

When Mickey’s little blue eyes landed on the penguin that wore a blue scarf and had a heart stitched into his tummy they lit up and he let out a string of laughter that Marynia loved to hear. The two year old’s cheeks bunchedup beneath his eyes as he smiled with reddened cheeks. The toy quickly became his favourite thing in the world and he named him Theo, he heard that name in a TV somewhere. There were many nights in the Milkovich house when Mickey would be alone at his age. Everyone was out getting drunk while he lay on the mattress shoved in the corner of Iggy’s bedroom with his hand on his little sister Mandy. Theo became his best friend, the only one who he’d could talk to.

Years passed by and Terry was home every now and then.

“Who the fuck ate the last cake?” Terry yelled from the kitchen. Mickey, age 4 looked around nervously knowing very well it was him. It was the only thing left in the house to eat and he and Mandy’s tummy’s grumbled too loudly to sleep.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” Terry asked pointing a crooked finger in Mickey’s direction. Mickey quickly shook his head with wide blue eyes. Terry stormed up him grabbed him by the back of his collar lifting him into the air, “don’t fucking lie to me. Did you eat it?”

Mickey fearfully nodded before being thrown to the floor. A large hand slapped across his cheek making him cry out. “Terry!” Marynia called out as she came in from the bedroom.

“Don’t you have men that need to be sucked off. Get to it then.” Terry said as he grabbed up his coat and headed out the front door. Marynia pulled Mickey up rubbing at his sore cheek, “Mikhailo, are you okay?”

Mickey viciously wiped at his tears because If Terry came back that would be all the more reason for him to get hit again. “Baby, I go to work. Stay in your room.” Mickey nodded before shakily walking to the bedroom he shared with Mandy and heading to the bed where Theo lay.

“Hey Theo.” Mickey said letting his little hand caress the Penguin. “I told you we shouldn’t eat the cake…look what happens.” Mickey pouts his bottom lip out, “No…it’s not a’rite. He-he hit me again.” Mickey said to the animal clutching his red cheek as his lips quivered. Mickey wrapped an arm around the Penguin and his his face in its furry wing. Sobbing until he’d fallen asleep.

Theo had been there as Mickey’s support for every single time that Mickey needed him.

At six, Mickey was waddling down the sidewalk toward his home after school with his big red backpack on his back. “Yo, Milkovich!” He heard causing him to look up, only to see three older boys from school. They were all about 8 and 9, and they were heading in his direction. Mickey took a deep breath and tried to put on his scariest face, “Fuck you want?”

“Heard a rumour that your dad finally showed that bitch mom of yours whose the boss and killed her!” Mickey’s eyes went wide at such a rumour because it wasn’t like it was far fetched or impossible.

“Why don’t you talk about shit that you know about?” Mickey huffed turning on his way toward his house. When he closed the distance he could see a white panel van parked out front with the words Med…me…. M-e-d-i-c-a-l E-x-a-m-i-n-e-r, and a couple cop cars. He crosses his fingers as he hopes that Terry just broke Parole and is being arrested again.

When he climbed the steps to the house and saw two police officers conversing by the door, he had all mind to just turn around and walk away until they left. But they looked up locking eyes with him. “Hey buddy, what’s your name?”

“M-Mickey.” Mickey stammered.

“Well, Mickey, my name is Officer Owens. Why don’t you sit down here on the step for a minute?”

“Where’s my Ma?”

The officer knew all too well what the Milkovich family was like. He knew that Terry wouldn’t explain to the kid where his mother was and he knew the kid was probably thinking right now fuck the police.

“Mickey, your mom had an accident when she was uh taking…medication. She…she reacted badly to it and her body couldn’t handle it, she passed away. She died.”

Tears immediately filled Mickey’s eyes because he knew she didn’t take medication, “You mean her drugs?” He asked. The cop nodded and Mickey forced himself to blink back the tears because Terry always says crying is for girls.

Mickey ran away from the house and under the L track, until he was sitting against a pillar digging through his bag until he pulled Theo out. He wraps his little arms around the stuffed animal and he sobs letting his tears soak into the black fur. “She’s gone, Thee. She’s gone.” When the skies turned darker that night, Mickey finally made his way home. Terry was sitting on the couch in his boxers staring at the Tv. “Fuck you’ve been?” He asked.

“Playing under the L.” Terry waved his hand dismissively before turning back to Mickey, “Your mom’s not coming home. Go help Iggy make something for me to eat.”

Mickey sniffled a little bit as softly as he could as he met his brother in the kitchen. Iggy’s eyes were wet but Mickey knew not to say anything about it. He walked around the kitchen helping with whatever it was that he could reach. Terry ate while sitting in front the TV and Iggy and Mickey sat at the table. “Where’s Mandy?”

“Aunt Ran came and took her.” Iggy said shrugging his shoulder. When he finished eating his sandwich he made his way into his and Mandy’s bedroom and pulled Theo out his bag and settled into his bed. When he got comfortable, he began crying as he thought of how he’d never see his mother again. She wasn’t the best but she was better to him than anyone he lived with well except Mandy. At some point he didn’t realise that he had been crying loudly until his bedroom door swung open and Terry stood in the doorway.

“Fuck I tell you about crying huh? Crying’s for pussies and fags. Quit it.” The harsh tone and sadness in Mickey combines causing him to cry even more unable to control his feelings.

“I said quit it!” Terry yelled slapping Mickey across the cheek. Mickey buried his face into Theo and cried loudly.

“I’m sick of you and this fucking thing.” Terry grabbed the stuffed animal away from him before shoving Mickey and his outreached hands into the wall. Terry left the room and that was the last time Mickey had seen his best friend. He sobbed loudly and let himself mourn his mother and best friend as he her Terry cursed loudly before slamming the front door shut.

Mickey shakes away the memory, and wipes a tear from his eyes as he looks around the darkened almost empty attic. He sighs loudly as he throws the jacket he’d found down and then followed going down the ladder with Theo tucked under his arm.

“Found anything worth keeping?” Ian asks.

“Uh…” Mickey looks down at the toy in his hands and then thinks he should just add it to the pile of shit to burn, “Just this.” He says holding up the penguin as he walks into the kitchen where Ian is packing dishes.

“What’s that?”

“Ian…meet Theo. My childhood best friend.” Ian looked on with furrowed brows before his face softened as he smiled gently and he walked toward Mickey. That’s a smile Mickey had been seeing more often since they’d gotten out of prisons. Almost like the little puppy Ian he started hooking up with more than ten years before was finally coming back to him. He hugged him quietly and then went back to what he was doing. “I’ll ask Debbie if she knows how to get him clean again.” Ian said picking up the toy and placing it in the box he’d put the things he wanted to keep (like his army uniform). He gave Mickey a small smile, “And maybe one day you’ll tell me about him.”

Mickey nodded as he moved to take one of the plates Ian was keeping and through it into the trash pile, “That was the plate Terry always used.” Ian nodded. “I got Theo from my mom. She stole it from Abdul’s which then turned to Kash and Grab which doesn’t exist anymore.”

“Abdul was Kash’s dad I think.” Ian said.

“Yeah…I’m pretty sure that penguin was Kash’s before she stole it.”

“So you’re telling me I’m not the first thing you stole from him?” Ian teased.

“Firstly were you even his to begin with?”

“No I guess not.”

“Secondly, can we promise to never talk about that sick fuck again?”

“Deal.”

Mickey nodded his approval before continuing to help Ian. “Can’t believe the fucker is dead.” Mickey muttered. “Thought when he’d finally die I’d be so far away from this fucking place that I wouldn’t even know.”

Ian remained silent but he nodded his head as Mickey spoke “You ever think of leaving? Once your Parole is up?”

“Yeah… but then I think your family is here and you might not want to leave. So I’m sticking around.”

“We could talk about it you know? We’ve got three years to decide. No need to rush it.” Ian said casually.

“You’d do that? Move?”

“Yeah…think I’m ready to leave Southside behind. It could be just you and me.” Ian said wrapping two arms around Mickey’s waist, “you, me and Theo.” Ian smiled making Mickey blush as he hid his face into Ian’s neck.

“The Tales of Ian, Mickey and Theo…I like that.”

 


End file.
